G Hawke

MULTILATERALISM, REGIONALISM, BILATERALISM – WHAT WILL BE THE ASIA-PACIFIC CONTEXT FOR NEW ZEALAND : MULTILATERALISM, REGIONALISM, BILATERALISM – WHAT WILL BE THE ASIA-PACIFIC CONTEXT FOR NEW ZEALAND Presentation to Asia Forum Wellington, 27 May 2003 By Gary Hawke Chair, NZPECC, and Head of the School of Government, VUW
PECC: PECC six-monthly meeting of the PECC Standing Committee Washington DC, 22-4 April. Seminar of the PECC Trade Forum on Regional Trading Agreements inaugural meeting of the Asia-Pacific Council of the US, major speeches from Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and USTR, Bob Zoellick.
Fred Bergstrom : Fred Bergstrom IIE – APEC EPG - adviser to Administration. “Competitive liberalization”. RTAs and the multilateral process – “complementary, mutually supporting and if properly managed, catalytic”. Doha and FTAA are now on a timetable that ends in May 2007 – RTAs provide main action in meantime
Fred Bergstrom cont.: Fred Bergstrom cont. East Asian RTAs driven less by co-operation than by conflict between Japan and China. less likely to proceed to multilateralisation? RTAs as the 4th attempt to find a strategy to implement the Bogor Goals? On this analysis, the Asia-Pacific context for NZ will be reasonable pressure to co-operate in a WTO round but with a relaxed timetable until 2007, and a need to manage a process of RTAs designed to speed up and go beyond the multilateral process.
Robert Zoellick : Robert Zoellick Background: Administration’s success with China’s accession to the WTO while not unaware of problems, generally positive about its subsequent implementation Russia and Vietnam accession – on timetables they decide. focus in the multilateral area is on market access regional priorities are FTAA, ASEAN, and the Middle East.
Slide6: The bilateral agenda is Singapore and Chile, where negotiated FTAs await submission to Congress, Central America, Morocco, South Africa and Australia. Zoellick knows the dangers of bilateralism, but is not willing to proceed in the WTO only when it is subject to veto by every member Whatever was the case in the 1980s trade policy now will not be decoupled from political goals APEC has the interesting feature of involving business - it is a “post Cold War economic institution”
Colin Powell : Colin Powell an adviser to a president with a vision of a world at peace, using all the tools at his disposal for that purpose, drawing on the best possible advice all his advisers can provide, and making the decisions he has been elected to make. Asia versus Europe? it is both diplomatic and true that both are important, but in the 21st century the correct answer is that all big issues are global. The Asia Pacific Region acknowledged as having participated in the war on terrorism, in finance, travel, intelligence, and agreements in APEC.
Colin Powell cont.: Colin Powell cont. There is no reduced US commitment to the Region, including Korea and China Powell is impressed by China’s willingness to assist on Korea and reflected on how far the relationship has changed since the Hainan Island incident. Differences of Perspectives to be mediated, but New Zealand’s problem is that it is seen to deny the morality of the US vision.
RTAs : RTAs Does their liberalizing effect for members outweigh the damage they do to the multilateral system? pragmatism versus principle? proponents of liberalisation will use RTAs
RTA’s cont.: RTA’s cont. Assessments of 38 agreements. mostly promote welfare of the members, especially small members expansion to new members usually benefits existing members (but may not when enlargement is outweighed by dilution of preferences as could happen for Canada and Mexico) “ins” gain while “outs” lose, which is especially concerning for Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan in relation to East Asia, and it is possible that there are positive effects from “new age” elements of RTAs and from productivity growth.
RTA’s cont.: RTA’s cont. Rules of Origin – impact exaggerated? Main danger may be use as protectionist instrument. “Diversion” – including investment and more generally through information flows – the international economy worth considering may come to be those economies which have the “stamp of approval” of an RTA.
Preferentialism and Reciprocity : Preferentialism and Reciprocity RTAs, not FTAs – politicians can fool themselves and others with language – How important are they? Tariffs – WTO process. Peaks, and cascades. Access for services, conditions of investment. NZ and US-Aust. Case for free trade. World income is maximised when there are as few constraints as possible on the allocation of resources to their most productive use. National boundaries are constraints on the allocation of resources and therefore world income is maximised by minimising the effect of national boundaries
So why RTAs?- slow pace of WTO- anxiety about markets and desire for assurance of political control : So why RTAs? - slow pace of WTO - anxiety about markets and desire for assurance of political control APEC and Alcoholics Anonymous
APEC : APEC Failure? Cf GATT in 1961 Politics of APEC – meetings of leaders. But still real economic significance. Economic integration, not reciprocal exchange of concessions among national economies.
Business and economic policy : Business and economic policy more mature understanding of relations between business and governments? Lobbying, but mere access to powerful office-holders will often not be the best way to influence policy decisions.
Business and economic policy cont.: Business and economic policy cont. The intellectual effort of developing knowledge and considering how to use collective decisions to benefit communities is an essential component of influencing policy. So is capacity to engage in the economic integration which provides business opportunity. Economic and technical co-operation is not a concession but a central element of economic integration.
The main story : The main story US political system, US policy vision – key to the Asia Pacific context Context will be slow progress of WTO to 2007, action on regional and bilateral front which could be either beneficial or disastrous for the world economy and for New Zealand. Main game remains economic integration. For which APEC and therefore PECC remains important. International economic policy requires mutual understanding of business, community and government. There should not be a gold rush to any particular RTA

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